20 Jan 2020
Terry and I decided to take a drive up to Inverell, then back to Tamworth through Gilgai, Tingha, Guyra and Armidale. It took us all day, but it was really a very pleasant way to spend our time.
As Terry drove up the Moonbi mountains I couldn’t help wondering if we would ever see our unique bushland regenerate to its former beauty in our lifetime. There were large patches all along our travels that had been badly burned by the bushfires, cloaking the landscape in shades of dreary brown and black. Most trees and all the scrubland beneath them were either dead or dying.
There were also pockets of damage where dry lightning had started smaller fires that left clumps of trees, and some wooden fences, scorched.
It was heart-warming as we travelled from Gilgai to Guyra to see how beautiful and green the landscape was, and it was at that point that I realized how soothing to a drought weary soul the colour green can be. That whole area had obviously had far better rainfall than we had received on the plains as dams were full, creeks flowed, and puddles of water sat along much of the roadside. I felt a physical lifting of my spirits just to see nature at its best again.
We stopped in Guyra and had a Lamb Sausage Roll for lunch. The Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival was in full swing, so we strolled the street looking at all the displays of local crafts and goodies which was very interesting and, in some cases, quite clever.
The further south we drove the drier it became but I noticed something extraordinary on the way home. In some of the badly charred trees clumps of bright green leaves had started to sprout and their colour was extremely vivid against the blackened trunks. In a way it was beautiful, because it made me feel there is hope that we will see our Aussie bushland again, in all its messy beauty.
As we drove down the Moonbi’s on our return we hit a massive storm and the rain pelted down, so much so that we had to put the windscreen wiper on double time. We thought how lovely it would be for our town to receive such a great amount of rain and chatted about how we hoped the rain was falling in our catchment are. Alas, by the time we reached the bottom of the Moonbi Range the rain was gone. Tamworth had not received a drop!
The Keeper of Stories 